WIST Quotations

Pratchett, Terry -- Good Omens, Foreword (2006 ed.) [with Neil Gaiman]

Dave — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 22:02:54 +0000

Etiquette tip: It’s okay, more or less, to ask an author to sign your arm, but not good manners to then nip around to the tattoo parlor next door and return half an hour later to show them the inflamed result.

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Good Omens, Foreword (2006 ed.) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)

Salinger, J. D. -- The Catcher in the Rye, ch. 3 (1951)

Dave — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 21:48:26 +0000

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.

J. D. Salinger (1919–2010) American writer [Jerome David Salinger]
The Catcher in the Rye, ch. 3 (1951)

Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas -- The Art of Poetry [L’Art Poétique], Canto 1, l. 232 (1674)

Dave — Wed, 18 May 2016 14:04:41 +0000

A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him.

[Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l’admire.]

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711) French poet and critic
The Art of Poetry [L’Art Poétique], Canto 1, l. 232 (1674)

Alt. trans.: "A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him."

Scalzi, John -- “Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be,” blog entry (26 Jul 2012)

Dave — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:08:50 +0000

Many people believe geekdom is defined by a love of a thing, but I think — and my experience of geekdom bears on this thinking — that the true sign of a geek is a delight in sharing a thing. It’s the major difference between a geek and a hipster, you know: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love.” When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say “ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER.”

John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer
“Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be,” blog entry (26 Jul 2012)
(Source)

Atwood, Margaret -- Negotiating with the Dead, ch. 2 “Duplicity: The jekyll hand, the hyde hand, and the slippery double” (2002)

Dave — Tue, 27 May 2014 12:56:28 +0000

Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like paté.

Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) Canadian writer, literary critic, environmental activist
Negotiating with the Dead, ch. 2 “Duplicity: The jekyll hand, the hyde hand, and the slippery double” (2002)
(Source)

Usually directly attributed to Atwood, but she made it clear that it was not hers:

There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine -- [the quotation]. That's a light enough comment upon the disappointments of encountering the famous, or even the moderately well-known -- they are always shorter and older and more ordinary than you expected -- but there's a more sinister way of looking at it as well. In order for the paté to be made and then eaten, the duck must first be killed. And who is it that does the killing?

Shaw, George Bernard -- Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists: Idolatry” (1903)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone: the civilized man to idols of flesh and blood.

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright and critic
Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists: Idolatry” (1903)
(Source)